AME calls on MPs to come out for marriage
It’s the fight that won’t go away and advocacy group Australian Marriage Equality (AME) has now called on both sides of the political divide to come out for same-sex marriage.
The call follows a statement by former High Court justice Michael Kirby, at the International Queer Studies Conference in Brisbane this month, questioning the lack of action on gay marriage in Australia.
“The present federal Government have not thought it timely to attack the issue [of legalising gay marriage],” the ABC reported Kirby as saying.
“It has also been agitated in the trade union movement but so far it hasn’t secured anybody in the federal Parliament, in the Labor Party, to champion the cause.
“At the moment they are hiding their heads and they are not doing much about it.”
AME national convenor Alex Greenwich told Sydney Star Observer it’s up to the GLBTI community to make a stand at election time.
“Unfortunately we have leaders who are so strongly against same-sex marriage and people in those parties, even if they supported it, are not welcome to put their views forward,” he said.
“What the GLBTIQ community needs to do is to look at parties where we do have some options. There are parties out there that support same-sex marriage and we need to make our views known at the ballot box, because [federal politicians are] just not getting it.”
Greenwich said, from his years of lobbying Labor and Liberal MPs, there is silent support in some quarters for same-sex marriage.
“Look no further than the low turnout in the Senate for [the Marriage Equality (Amendment) Bill], senators like Louise Pratt have been very vocal on same-sex marriage and there is support in the lower house with Peter Garrett, who has shown support in the past.”
During Kirby’s conference address he said that although he and his partner of 41 years would probably not consider marrying at this stage, he understood why other gay and lesbian couples wanted the right to marriage equality.
Kirby also praised the honesty of Latino pop sensation Ricky Martin for recently coming out, saying it was a courageous move and he would “trade 10 judges of the highest court for one person like Ricky Martin”.
The world is evolving – isn’t it about time the old politicians stopped trying to preserve an old “ideology” on the concept of marriage?
By not allowing same-sex couples to get married you are punishing them, ranking them below “normal couples” and thus – isolating this minority even further from normal society. Marriage is a very personal choice, the government should have no say in this.
It’s about time things change – the new revolution of youth is here, it has arrived and it will not go away. Stop making matters more difficult. Follow the open-minded colour that is today and stop holding on to the black and white conservative laws of a boring narrow-minded generation that no longer exists.
We are citizens of Australia – a country which is supposedly the “land of the free”. Yet still you choose to segregate, not integrate society on a marital celebration we as humans should all be entitled to.
Please do not forget intersex people who also want the right to marry. “Marriage equality” would be a more appropriate and inclusive term.
Same sex marriage or gay marriage excludes intersex just as much as opposite marriage excludes us.
http://oiiaustralia.com/oii-australia-speech-caah-rally-sydney-town-hall-saturday-28th-november-2009/
Justice Kirby tells me he is always careful to include intersex people and speaks about GLBTIQ or LGBTI, always including I for Intersex, and it is terrific to see AME and SSO also using those acronyms. Thank you, all of you, for doing that.
“Kirby also praised the honesty of Latino pop sensation Ricky Martin for recently coming out, saying it was a courageous move and he would “trade 10 judges of the highest court for one person like Ricky Martin”
I take my hat off to you sir (if I was wearing one) I feel so proud that Kirby would even say such a thing. Now we just have to try harder! We can get Gay Marriage in Australia but we will need to get all those conservatives out…
Kirby is right.
It is time the hate was stopped. The question should be “Do you support discrimination or not?”.
Politicians should be careful not to be caught on the wrong side of history. Kevin Rudd, or Sir Jo as he is now better known, is fading. He only won the ALP leadership by just a few votes. He will exit politics with a legacy of stuff ups. His failure to end discrimination for our community will be one of them.